


Of A Different World

by Symphoenae



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon), ぼくらはカセキホリダー | Fossil Fighters (Video Games)
Genre: Callum has a Kaishin and she fights with Rayla for his affections, DINOSAUR PETS DUDE, Dinaurian!Rayla, Dragons are replaced by literally just dinosaurs, Elves are replaced by Dinaurians, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Honestly vice-versa for Rayla between Callum and her V-Ripper, Please buy this game it's so good, Surprise Dinaurian!Callum, and they're represented by the Legendary Vivosaurs, but only the archdragons are represented, depends on what the chapter prompt is, honestly just a collection of one shots across a single timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25318735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symphoenae/pseuds/Symphoenae
Summary: The TDP x FF crossover fic that no one asked for, now with more Dinaurian!Rayla and surprise Dinaurian!Callum
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 34





	1. First Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> IM LOVE FOSSIL FIGHTERS AND FOSSIL FIGHTERS CHAMPIONS! But don't fucking talk to me about Fossil Fighters Frontier that game doesn't exist. Don't buy that one. It ruined the franchise. Get the original and then champions after. The original's really the one you wanna get if you wanna learn about Dinaurians, but champion's the one you want if you're interested in the Super-Revivers. Game mechanics are fun!

If you were to ask Callum how his day digging in the Rainbow Canyon was going to go, he would not have responded with ‘stumbling upon a secret area, coming across a random stranger girl, and then being violently bowled over by said girl’s V-Ripper’. Luckily for him, the V-Ripper hadn’t sunk its claws into any part of him, and the moment he was knocked to the ground, his Kaishin’s dino medal came flying out of his pocket. The giant water serpent activated and immediately constricted the poor super raptor the moment her eyes fell on the creature. So now there were just two super-revived vivosaurs tussling in the dirt, while their respective owners watched in shock and confusion. Callum picked himself up quickly, but instead of scrambling away from the fight, charged forward to reach his Kaishin.

“Kaishin! No!” Callum hollered, his hands coming into contact with her sleek scales. “Bad! Let go of the V-Ripper, I’m not injured! I’m fine!”

His Kaishin let out a hiss of disapproval, before letting the V-Ripper go. She then swept her tail around Callum loosely, guarding him with narrowed eyes. Callum let out a breath, dusting himself free of the dirt that had clung to his clothes. What a mess.

“Oi!” Came an angry, accented voice. “What do ya think you’re doing out here?! I thought you humans were supposed to stay in the safe, open parts of the dig site! And you shouldn’t be letting a thing like that roam free!” She accused, pointing her finger at Callum’s Kaishin.

The Kaishin’s hissing grew louder, to which Callum responded by firmly petting her side scales. “Okay, first of all, she was only protecting me from  _ your  _ V-Ripper, who unnecessarily attacked me! And secondly, what do you mean by ‘you humans’?! You’ve got a lot of nerve, you know!” He hollered back.

The stranger seemed to backtrack nervously. “Ah… that did sound a bit weird to say, didn’t it? I… spend a lot of time alone with my vivosaurs, I sometimes forget that ‘humans’ applies to me as well.” She said.

Callum didn’t quite believe her explanation, but it wasn’t worth prodding to him. He’d come there to dig up fossils and have a fun day, not get attacked by a super-reviver and interrogate a stranger. He sighed, rubbing his hands over his face and patting his Kaishin again. “Well, whatever. Sorry for intruding on your little secret area or whatever, just... keep your V-Ripper from attacking anyone else. Let’s go, Kaishin.”

Callum climbed up onto Kaishin’s sleek body as she began to slither away, letting out an annoyed grunt as she did. Callum heard an offended gasp from behind him.

“Excuse me! Tell your Kaishin to learn some manners! She has no right to talk about people like that!”

Now Callum was extremely confused. “You can understand my Kaishin? Like in actual English?”

The stranger faltered again. “Well, yeah… She called me something incredibly rude!”

Callum made a face. “Um. Kaishin, let’s not be mean to people, alright?” He directed towards his vivosaur, who let out a regrettably compliant hiss. “You’re a very strange person.” Callum said, now talking to the stranger. “You exclude yourself from humans, and you can talk to vivosaurs like it’s nothing unusual. Even I’m not on that level of communication, and I can be pretty accurate in figuring out the wishes of my vivosaurs… what are you?”

The stranger seemed to be getting more and more nervous by the second, and her V-Ripper was reacting to the emotion. It was getting more and more agitated, growling lowly as its incredible claws fingered twitched. Callum’s Kaishin was picking up on these ticks, and was beginning to fall back into fight mode again. Callum placed a calming hand on her back in an attempt to quell the rising tension. There was just something… different about the girl in front of him. All of these little bits of information he already knew all fit together, but the full picture was still escaping him. Until he realized with a gasp.

“Wait a second! You aren’t a Dinaurian, are you?!”

The girl deflated with a defeated breath. “Dammit. I’m that obvious, am I? I’ll have to keep my mouth shut tighter next time I run into another one of you humans…” She mumbled.

Before Callum could say anything else, the strange girl’s body erupted into a white light, and once it faded, her human disguise had been turned off. In her place stood a humanoid, only with strange horns atop her head, long, pointy ears, a thin tail, and strange curved markings under her eyes. Her skin coloring had changed as well, turning mainly a soft shade of purple with black spots outlined in an unusual green. He gaped.

“So you are…! That’s so cool!” Callum exclaimed, hopping off of his Kaishin in a strange excitement.

The stranger seemed completely taken aback by his exclamation, as well as her V-Ripper companion. “What?” She asked bluntly. “You think this is cool? ...You’re incredibly strange yourself.”

Callum was confused now. “What? Why wouldn’t it be cool? I heard stories of how Dinaurians came from the stars as a kid, and how they helped save the planet from a giant world-eating space monster! And you guys are basically dinosaurs yourself! It’s awesome!”

The girl scoffed. “Someone clearly told you the nicer version of that tale. Don’t you know anything about who summoned that space monster to eat your planet in the first place? It was us. One of our old kings, King Dynal. He and the older Dinaurians of his time tried to destroy your entire race because you weren’t like us. It’s why nowadays… people like me are more inclined to hide. Sure, we share your planet now, but your kind doesn’t like us after what we did.”

Callum fell silent. “I see… well, that doesn’t change my opinion.” He said firmly. “Sure, maybe some of your people did bad things in the past, but they very clearly made up for it. And I don’t even know if you were alive during their era, why would I pin the blame for something that was fixed on you? Or on anyone, for that matter?”

The Dinaurian girl fell silent herself, completely stunned by his words. Out of the corner of his eye, Callum noticed that her V-Ripper companion was looking at him intensely, studying him almost. He blinked.

“Your V-Ripper isn’t a Dinaurian too, is it? I’ve never heard of a Dinaurian having a super-reviver form…”

She shook her head quickly. “No, he’s not. Just like how you have your Kaishin, and whatever other vivosaurs you may have with you, I have my own team. But I would still prefer it if you kept your Kaishin away from me. I don’t like water types.”

“Huh.” Callum muttered. “Well, luckily for you, she’s my only water type vivosaur. My name is Callum, by the way! What’s yours?”

The girl looked at him funny. “You… you want to know my name? I’m still trying to process the fact you don’t automatically hate me.”

Callum groaned, rolling his eyes. “Listen, I get that you have a clear idea in your head that ‘all humans are bad’ or ‘all humans will hate me’ but I’m not like that. Just because you’re technically an alien doesn’t mean you aren’t a person.” He stopped frowning to himself. “But if you want me to stop bothering you, I get it. I can leave. I wasn’t wanted here in the first place. Kaishin, come on, let’s go!”

Callum turned back around, climbing atop his trusty Kaishin again, before he felt a hand grab onto his arm before he was fully on his vivosaur’s back.

“Wait!” The girl shouted quickly, nervously eyeing his Kaishin. “My name is Rayla. I didn’t mean to be so rude, it’s just… I’ve never really had the best experience with humans if they find out what I am.”

Callum offered her a warm smile. “Well, nice to meet you, Rayla.” He then looked up to meet his Kaishin’s eyes, noting how they were still full of annoyance and distrust. “Kaishin, return.”

His Kaishin grumbled, displeased with the command, but did as she was told. Callum gently pocketed her dino medal when she was fully deactivated.

“Well, to be honest, after getting knocked about by your V-Ripper, I don’t really have the energy to continue digging out here for much longer. I should probably start heading home, my step-dad and brother will probably start getting anxious if I’m out too late anyways. Again, it was nice meeting you Rayla. I hope your experience with us humans gets better.”

“Wait!” Rayla called again as he was walking off. Her body flashed white again and her Dinaurian features vanished, leaving the more human image in its place. “At least let me walk you to the teleport tunnel. It was my V-Ripper that attacked you, I should least make sure you’re alright getting back to the main areas of civilization.”

Callum shrugged his shoulders. “I mean, if you want to…”

“V-Ripper, return.” Rayla commanded gently to her companion. “He’s still not quite trusting of you, sorry. But I think we can call it even, I’m pretty sure your Kaishin wants to eat me.”

Callum laughed. “Yeah, fair enough. She’s really protective of me. I honestly gravitate way more to air types, so it may come as a surprise that my main vivosaur partner is a water type. I do have two air types to balance it though. Along with a neutral and a fire type.”

Rayla bit her lip. “I actually have a water type on my team as well… actually, now that I’m thinking about it, we have the exact same typing spread. That’s odd.”

“Interesting.” Callum mumbled. “Hey, Rayla? Could I ask what your full dino form looks like? I can’t exactly make you show me, I’m just curious. Though, wait, that isn’t like, an offensive question to ask Dinaurians is it? If it is, I’m so sorry-”

“Relax, dummy.” Rayla interrupted with an eye roll. “It’s fine. Um… I guess the best comparison for my dino form is a Delta vivosaur. I even have almost the exact same colors as one. Though I do have certain body features that differ. And I’m not a water type, I’m a neutral type.”

“Wow.” Callum breathed out. “It must be so cool to be able to actually partake in fossil battles along with your vivosaurs!”

“Well, I don’t do so often, since I’m more inclined to hide and all. But yes, it’s fun to fight side by side with your companions.”

Before the two of them knew it, they’d arrived at the teleport tunnel that would lead back to civilization. The two of them fell silent, looking at each other awkwardly, unsure of what to say.

“Well… it was nice to meet you, Rayla.” Callum said, cringing at the fact that it was the third time he’d said so. “Uh… I guess I’ll see you around?”

“Give me your paleopager.”

“What?” Callum asked dumbly.

“Oh for-” Rayla shook her head, pulling out her own paleopager and shoving it towards him. “Put your number in mine. I can message you sometime later, if you want me to. I have a feeling you have a lot more questions about me bouncing around in that head of yours.”

Callum only nodded dumbly, slowly entering his paleopager number. This outcome was clearly not what he was expecting, as he handed the device back to her.

“Right then.” Rayla said, pocketing it. “See you around, Callum. Have a safe trip home.”

And with that, she turned on her heel, and began walking back deeper into Rainbow Canyon. Callum watched her go, still completely dumbfounded, before a stupid looking grin spread across his face. Had he just made a new friend? Oh, he couldn’t wait to tell Ezran and his step dad about his crazy chance encounter. Maybe getting attacked by that V-Ripper hadn’t been such a bad thing after all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not abandoning SOS guys I promise I just needed a change of pace in my writing. And since King Dynal literally looks like Runaan and Duna reminds me so much of Rayla I thought WHY NOT WRITE THIS HELL.
> 
> It's just gonna be a collection of one shots based in the same timeline, there's no stretching plot like SOS, there's only so much worldbuilding I can handle. D I N O T I M E
> 
> Please buy these games they're so good and the fandom for it is nearly non-existent I just wanna have friends to gush about the dinosaur-version of Pokemon with,,,, I beg,,,,,,,,


	2. Learning Boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes people would say that Vivosaurs don’t need to be taken out of their dino medals unless it’s to gear up for a battle, but Callum vehemently disagreed with this idea. He loved to let all of his vivosaurs out, but only two of his five could actually fit inside the house. His Aopteryx, for one, was the smallest of his team members, sitting at only three feet. Then, on the other hand, his Kaishin was the biggest, standing tall at around forty-six feet. So if he were to take his super-revivers out of their medals for exercise, it had to be far away. Which was why he was out in the middle of the Petrified Woods, in the water, riding on his Kaishin. His Nycto Ace and Teffla, luckily enough, were both able to fly, and they were doing so overhead. He considered letting out his Aopteryx to join them, but that would leave out his poor Lagia, flightless and a fire type. So for now, he decided that he would stick to letting out his normal vivosaurs around the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of this AU because I just. I just love the image of Dinaurian!Rayla I have in my head. It would probably help if everyone else were to look up the vivosaur species I'm constantly mentioning. And then there's me who has 2 copies of Fossil Fighters Champions and I can just look at my collection whenever :)
> 
> Can you tell that Callum has no idea that he's secretly a Dinaurian and always has been. I'll make a chapter shot of all that noise at some point.

Sometimes people would say that Vivosaurs don’t need to be taken out of their dino medals unless it’s to gear up for a battle, but Callum vehemently disagreed with this idea. He loved to let all of his vivosaurs out, but only two of his five could actually fit inside the house. His Aopteryx, for one, was the smallest of his team members, sitting at only three feet. Then, on the other hand, his Kaishin was the biggest, standing tall at around forty-six feet. So if he were to take his super-revivers out of their medals for exercise, it had to be far away. Which was why he was out in the middle of the Petrified Woods, in the water, riding on his Kaishin. His Nycto Ace and Teffla, luckily enough, were both able to fly, and they were doing so overhead. He considered letting out his Aopteryx to join them, but that would leave out his poor Lagia, flightless and a fire type. So for now, he decided that he would stick to letting out his normal vivosaurs around the house.

A pipping noise from his paleopager started him out of his relaxed trance.

_ From Unknown: Hey, serpent prince. It’s Rayla from the other day. Just wondering, is that little trifecta of super-revivers in the Petrified Woods lake yours, or are there just wild super-revivers roaming around, because I’ll have to call someone to take care of that. _

Callum snorted, sitting up from his laying-down position atop his Kaishin’s back. Said serpent let out a soft grumble, a simple question. He patted her back gently.

“It’s alright, Kaishin, I’m not going to fall off. I just rather answer a text on my paleopager while sitting up. You can continue your swimming!”

_ Callum: Wouldn’t that be a shame? Yes, they’re my vivosaurs. I’m guessing Kaishin gave it away. I like to have my vivosaurs get some exercise from time to time without having to worry about fighting. _

_ Rayla: Wow, you have it all, don’t you? You have water and air transport at your fingertips, while us plebs over here have to just walk or swim. You really are a prince, huh? _

_ Callum: I told you, I like air types. And my Kaishin is important to me. I know you don’t like her but she’s… special. _

_ Rayla: I think I’ve hit a boundary I shouldn’t have crossed. I’m sorry. _

_ Callum: You’re alright, you didn’t know. Just like I don’t know things that might upset you. Maybe we should talk about boundaries sometime. Well, only if you’re interested in being actual friends. _

_ Rayla: Why not right now? I’m at the edge of the giant petrified stump watching your super-revivers play around already. Just tell your Kaishin to drop you off at the top of the stump and you can let them continue to play as long as they stay in sight range. _

_ Callum: Well… I guess there isn’t much of a problem with that. I’ll be over in a bit. _

Callum gently patted Kaishin’s back. “Hey, Kaishin, could you possibly swim me over to the giant stump over there? You and the other two super-revivers can keep playing, just make sure to stay in my field of vision, okay?”

She obeyed without question, thrilled that she was allowed to keep on swimming even if he wasn’t with her. Her happy attitude was soured, however, when she brought Callum to the top of the big stump and saw who was waiting for him. Kaishin narrowed her eyes at the Dinaurian girl, but refrained from making any offensive noises as she quickly swam off back to join the Nycto Ace and Teffla.

“Hey!” Rayla called casually, waving a lavender hand.

“Oh.” Callum breathed, surprised. “You’ve got your disguise turned off. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because he noticed Rayla’s body language turn a bit hesitant and reserved.

“Ah… I just thought it didn’t really matter anymore since you already know. Um, I can turn it back on I guess…”

“No!” Callum shouted quickly, cringing at his reaction. “I wasn’t saying it as if it was a bad choice, it’s just that we’re still in a relatively known area of the Petrified Woods, and people come up here all the time. If you’re comfortable with it, it’s totally fine, I just wasn’t sure if you were ready to risk that.”

Rayla’s lilac eyes flashed in understanding, and her posture relaxed again. “I see, I didn’t think of it like that. It’s a slow day for this dig area, though, because I actually didn’t see anyone else here while I was walking. I should be okay.”

Callum nodded awkwardly. “Ah. Okay. You know better than I do.”

Rayla raised an eyebrow, looking at him curiously as her tail swished through the air. She blinked, suddenly sitting down on the ground and inviting Callum to join her with a waved hand. “You’re very strange. You were so confident talking to me a few days ago, and now you’re so hesitant and reserved. Can I ask why that is?”

Callum nodded, sitting down across from the Dinaurian. “Well, a few days ago I was somewhat in fight-or-flight mode after your V-Ripper bowled me over. There’s no real danger here for me now, and if I’m being honest, I don’t exactly have a lot of experience in making friends. There’s my brother Ezran, but I suppose he doesn’t count. Then there’s Claudia and Soren, they’re siblings. Claudia’s nice, and Soren kinda teases me a lot, but they’re the only friends I have. Human, at least. I consider my vivosaurs my friends too, but I don’t know how sad you might think that is.”

Rayla shrugged her shoulders. “Nah, it’s not sad. I mean, you’re kinda trying to make another dinosaur your friend right now.”

“Well, yeah.” Callum mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve always found that I think of vivosaurs as people too. They are very much aware, just like we are. But again, I’m not very good at making friends. My awkwardness is the norm.”

“Aye.” Rayla nodded. “Well, I don’t exactly have a lot of friends either. I barely know other Dinaurians, much less humans. You’ll be a first for me, I think.”

“So we’re agreeing that we’re going to be friends?”

The Dinaurian nodded with a laugh. “Well, if you put it like that, it sounds like a business deal. I think neither of us know how to properly start a friendship here.”

“Yeah, I agree with that.” Callum replied with a laugh of his own. “So um… boundaries? What’s stuff we should immediately agree that’s off limits?”

“Well, first off, you touch my tail and I kill you.” Rayla began with a toothy grin. “I’m not a toy, and I will bite if you piss me off. Also, I don’t like talking about my past much, so please do not ask. And if you bring me into water or into contact with water type vivosaurs I will also kill you.”

Callum gulped. “Noted.” He sighed, thinking about things he wouldn’t want to be prodded himself. “Um, well, I have to ask that you don’t bad mouth my Kaishin too much if you can avoid it. She’s got a really important history with me and I don’t know if I have the strength to talk about it right now.”

Rayla cocked her head. “Is that all? Well, I will try to keep my disdain for your Kaishin out of your sight. She still very much doesn’t like me though. She called me foul-smelling chew toy the other day.”

“That was offensive to you?”

“It’s the principle!” Rayla hollered indignantly. “I am not a chew toy! And she called me stinky!”

“I’m pretty sure she could’ve called you a million worse things, Rayla.” Callum said bluntly.

“I would’ve gone full dino mode and fought her if she had.”

Callum snorted and fell into a bout of laughter at Rayla’s indignancy, to which Rayla watched his laughter fest with an exasperated look. She did, however, notice some of his little quirks as he laughed- he wrinkled his nose a little, along with shutting his eyes with a grin- an overall cute little look. Because all humans had the ability to be cute. Not just Callum. She wasn’t noticing Callum being cute specifically.

“You do realize that a Kaishin is twenty feet bigger than a Delta?” He asked, calming down from his laughing. “She could sit on you and win.”

Rayla crossed her arms and pouted. “I’m appalled by that notion. Don’t give your Kaishin ideas.”

“She can’t hear me, she’s off playing in the water!”

“She can probably hear your thoughts at this rate, the two of you are so close.”

“Yeah, okay, let me just beam ideas into my water serpent’s head. ‘Sit on Rayla’, yes, because I want this to happen.”

Rayla rolled her eyes, leaning over to punch him lightly in the shoulder. “I hope you know that can go both ways. In my dino form I could just sit on you and win.”

“That’s unfair! You’re a Dinaurian, and I’m human!”

“All is fair in hypotheticals, Callum.”

The two of them continued to chat there, sat together on the giant petrified stump for a good while, before the two of them noticed dark clouds rolling in, signaling a storm coming. Callum looked to Rayla, who was grimacing at the sky. He shook his head with amusement, standing up and whistling loudly out to his playing vivosaurs. The three super-revivers returned to him, Kaishin and Nycto Ace immediately returning to their dino medals. Callum climbed up atop his Teffla, extending a hand to Rayla, who was still sitting down and watching him curiously.

“I know you don’t like water, and you seem to not like the idea of rain as well. I don’t want to just leave you here, so how about you join me for a Teffla flight?”

Rayla eyed him hesitantly. “I don’t know, I’ve never really flown on a vivosaur before. And I could literally just take the teleport tunnel back to Ribular, and make my way back to my home from there. You don’t need to offer me a ride really.”

Callum pouted. “But it’ll be fun! I won’t drop you, and my Teffla isn’t my Kaishin. He doesn’t seem to dislike you like she does. Plus, you won’t have to put your human disguise back on, since we’ll be in the air!”

Rayla sighed, standing up and carefully letting herself be pulled atop the air type by the boy. “Fine. You better not drop me or I will have some words.”

Callum snorted, patting his Teffla’s neck to signal him to take off. He did so with a running start, zooming by in the sky, very easily outrunning the approaching storm clouds. Callum felt Rayla’s arms wrap around his waist tightly, a signal of nervousness. He decided that this was for her own comfort, and it would be okay. This type of personal space boundary hadn’t been discussed when they were talking, but Callum found that he really didn’t mind.

However, as the pair of them flew back to Ribular the long way, Callum found himself thinking deeply about the boundaries they had discussed. One of his hands curled around his Kaishin’s dino medal on a habit as he thought about the one boundary he had shared with the Dinaurian. One day he’d probably have to tell Rayla about his history with the water serpent.

But for now, he shook himself from his thoughts, watching with a slight smile as Rayla looked around the sky with awe and interest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah yes, I revealed Callum's full vivosaur team in this chapter. I'll do the same for Rayla's team in the future.
> 
> Also just to help with the Dinaurian visualization a bit, the average Dinaurian design includes a visible tail along with their pointy ears, horns if they have them, and the dinosaur's color scheme instead of a normal human skin color. This is based on the Fossil Fighters original game where multiple Dinaurians are seen in game at multiple points!


	3. Talents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He'd been incredibly mad. Cue a heated argument about the risks of having a human friend who knew what she was, some rather mean things were said, and Rayla had stormed off. The nerve of him! She could make her own choices for god’s sake, why couldn't he just be more supportive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends I am return  
> Just because I'm taking a break from SOS doesn't mean I can't be out here updating more of this little AU that literally only exists for my own happiness. One of my friends drew Dinaurian!Rayla for me a few days ago and I nearly died of excitement
> 
> Anyways here curious dino!Rayla messing about with Callum for about 2000 words

The best thing about being a Dinaurian was the fact you could go into full-dino mode and still have the consciousness you have in your half form. Meaning that if you were to come across an innocent human that was there in the wrong place at the wrong time, in the event they didn't immediately run when seeing her, she could easily prove she wasn't a threat like a wild abandoned vivosaur was. There were protection laws for Dinaurians when they were in their full dino forms, with the efforts of Duna and Hunter, but it wasn't like the rest of the humans found these laws to be protective of them. Fear ruled the humans, and fear led to lashing out. The majority of Dinaurians nowadays just want to live in peace on the planet, but with this constant tension, some of Rayla’s kind were starting to return the negative feelings.

Specifically, her adoptive father Runaan. Which was why she was currently rampaging through the Jungle Labyrinth in full dino form. Rayla had been fearing mentioning the fact she had a human friend now, but she supposed that she had to tell her dads at some point, so she'd just ripped the bandage off. Ethari seemed to be more willing to listen, albeit cautious, but Runaan on the other hand...

He'd been incredibly mad. Cue a heated argument about the risks of having a human friend who knew what she was, some rather mean things were said, and Rayla had stormed off. The nerve of him! She could make her own choices for god’s sake, why couldn't he just be more supportive?

Most humans didn't like to go this deep into the jungle, which was why she was more comfortable with ripping up a few toppled trees to blow off some of her steam. She was in the middle of sinking her teeth into a tree trunk, grinding the bark with the sharp teeth she possessed, when she suddenly heard something over the sound of her own angry growling. She spit out the tree, and the extra bark that had scraped off in her mouth, tilting her head curiously as the sound continued. It was someone singing, perhaps someone listening to music? She couldn't quite hear what was being said, but she was curious as ever. Her tail swished around in the air as she let out a gurgling noise, slowly following the sound until she found the source.

There was someone leaned against a toppled over tree near the edge of the cliff- most likely a human, but what was a human doing out here this deep into the jungle? He seemed to be looking out over the cliff, scribbling away in something in his lap. He had his paleopager sat on the ground next to him, and there was a female’s voice singing beautifully playing from it. She let out another quiet gurgle, but it was enough for her to be heard. The human turned around quickly, and-

_Callum?_ Rayla thought in her head, tilting her head again in confusion. What was he doing here?

“Um…” Callum said awkwardly, hugging whatever was in his lap close to his chest. “Hello?”

Rayla realized that he wasn't recognizing her like this- he'd never actually seen her in full dino mode, and her coloring and overall look was still incredibly similar to a normal Delta vivosaurs’. He must have immediately assumed she was a wild, abandoned vivosaur. As much as she wanted to ask him questions- which she couldn't like this, dinosaurs couldn't talk- she was curious to see how he reacted if she stayed like this. So she let out a quiet growl, bowing low to him and sniffing at him as if she was wild.

He seemed slightly nervous, but at the same time a little more relaxed already. Maybe it was because she hadn't straight up attacked him- not that she ever planned to.

“Hi there…” Callum said again, this time his voice was laced with curiosity. “Um… you're not going to eat me, are you?”

Rayla let out another gurgle, trying to seem as nice as possible for a dinosaur that was almost three times his size. She wanted to know what that thing he was hugging was though! She pushed forwards slowly, practically shoving her snout into his enclosed arms with a small snort.

“Whoa there!” Callum called out nervously, trying to scoot back a little, but remembered that the cliffside was too close for comfort. “Curious, are we? I don't have anything that can hurt you here, see?” He said quickly, unfolding his arms and showing her the object. “Look! It's just my sketchbook. I like to draw, Everyone says I'm really good at it. I come out here sometimes to keep from being bothered, but I guess I was found out today.”

With one mystery solved, she turned her dino head down to look at his paleopager, which seemed to be playing the same song over and over again on a loop.

“What, that?” Callum asked, picking it up carefully. “This is just my paleopager. Communication device or whatever. I use it to play songs a lot while I draw. Sometimes the silence of the outside atmosphere is too jarring, so I have stuff to fill the silence. I suppose I was kinda blasting my music pretty loudly, I guess that's how you found me…”

Well, she seemed to get all of her answers pretty quickly. She was interested in seeing his drawings though! But she didn't think Callum would show off his art to a random dinosaur in the jungle, and if she transformed back now, he might be too embarrassed over the fact he didn't recognize her to talk about it any more. So she did the next best thing- sat down rather unceremoniously and looked at him expectantly. She assumed the sight before him was strange- a sitting dinosaur, maybe he’d want to draw that?

“Uh…” Callum mumbled, his mind seemingly hitting a roadblock. “Do you… want to just sit with me for awhile?”

_No! Well, yes, but that's not all I want!_ Rayla thought helplessly. She let out a grunt of disapproval, trying to encourage Callum to think about it more. He looked at her funny.

“Maybe… you don't want me to draw you, do you?”

_Yes!_ Rayla thought, giving him a gargle of approval then. He seemed surprised by her agreement.

“Vivosaurs have concepts of art?” He wondered aloud, opening his sketchbook mindlessly. “That's a new one. Maybe I'll ask my vivosaurs if they like art sometime later… Sometimes I really do wonder just how aware you guys really are.”

Without much else said, Callum began his process. Rayla watched with amused interest as he kept looking between her and the page of his sketchbook, the song from his paleopager still blasting away as he continued on his process. She couldn’t really see his sketching as he did so, because he was hunched over it, and she was still sitting a bit away from him. Her tail swished along the ground impatiently as she let out grunts of impatience and excitement the longer this little dance went on. Eventually, though, he straightened out his posture and turned to her carefully, showing off a rough sketch.

“Um… well, this is my style. I have no idea if vivosaurs have the ability to critique…”

Rayla, on the other hand, was practically blown away. It was only a rough sketch, but it was so good! She felt like she was staring into a tiny mirror of herself, but there was one specific thing that stuck out to her. Even in dino form, with her jagged teeth, strange skin, and awkward sitting position, he’d drawn her in such a way that made her look like almost a goddess.

He’d drawn her beautiful, even in full dino form.

Something about this made her brain completely stall out on her, and she felt her mouth start to hang open comedically and a struggling gurgle made its way out of her mouth.

Callum, on the other hand, found that light chuckles escaped from his lips as he watched his assumed vivosaur friend look at his drawing in shock. “I’m guessing you like it, yeah? Well, I’m glad I suppose. Sometimes I feel like I’m not doing what I’m expected to. My mom was this great fossil fighter, someone that would be sent out on missions to combat criminals and particularly strong wild vivosaurs. She was amazing, and my step-dad has been going down the same path as her ever since she... “ He paused, biting his lip. “My younger brother’s already going on the same path, but he’s taking the most pacifist approach to it I’ve ever seen. I swear he can talk to the vivosaurs sometimes, like have full-on conversations with them.”

He sighed. “And yknow, I’m just not like that. Maybe I’ll pretend to put in effort to get stronger, going out to dig sites to maybe find ‘better’ vivosaurs to have on my team, but I wouldn’t replace any of my vivosaurs for anything. They’re my partners, and friends too. My Kaishin especially. If I have to have fossil battles, I do it for fun. I’m not really a fighter like that in the end, though. I’d rather just hang out with my vivosaurs if anything. I think if I had to be anything, I’d want to be an advocate for Dinaurian acceptance.”

That was a lot to unpack. Rayla made a mental note that the way Callum talked about his mother sounded like she’d passed away unexpectedly, and she would never bring that up unless he did first. Secondly, he seemed to have a lot of self-doubt. That was a thing they had in common. And third, she was completely astounded about his confession. He wanted to advocate for her kind? A human, who had every right to fear Dinaurians in terms of how much more powerful they were compared to his race? She’d never met a human this good before.

_Eat your words, Runaan._ Rayla thought to herself bitterly. _Not all humans are evil. Especially this one that I’m clearly lucky to call my friend._

“Ah.” Callum said suddenly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry, you’re a vivosaur, you probably don’t even know what I’m venting about. I’ll let you get back to your frolicking, I should be heading back home anyways. I might have promised my brother that I’d come with him to get some sweet treats later, where later is now.”

Rayla watched carefully as he turned his paleopager off, stood up and placed his sketchbook under his arm. He seemed to consider the best option of how to pass her by to get a move on leaving the dig site. It hurt her a bit to know he was still wary of her in some way, but she supposed it was justified. As much as vivosaurs were aware on some level, there was no telling when a wild one could suddenly change their minds and decide to attack. So she helped him out by standing back up herself, and beginning to walk away on her own accord.

Once she saw Callum leave her sight, she transformed back to her half form. She considered chasing after him, but decided against it, just in case he figured her out. Her own paleopager started going off, signaling she had missed messages, which she found were from her dads. Ethari telling her he was sorry for the argument he literally had no part in causing, and Runaan telling her to come home so they could discuss the situation with clearer heads. She rolled her eyes.

“If he thinks he can convince me on his cracked opinion on humans, he’s dead wrong.” She mumbled to herself, placing a hand on her hip. “Especially now.”

Callum was kind and good. To humans, to vivosaurs, and even to Dinaurians. If anyone could change Runaan’s mind, it was him. Rayla could see how amazing this human she’d chance met was already, surely he had to as well at some point.

She’d fight for it. She’d fight for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Callum is a dense boy, didn't realize that it was Rayla even though she has horns and eye markings while regular Deltas don't. He's doing his best, lol. Soft lad
> 
> Rayla is just enamored with him. She's never met a human like him, after all. But, of course, she'll find out along with him sometime in the future that he's not human at all. But that's for later~


	4. Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there was one thing Rayla could say to describe the vibe of the atmosphere in Ribular Town, it would be tense. The air hung like a thick jelly, and all of the people nearby seemed to be in some sort of strange funk. Had Rayla missed something, or was every human in town just upset all at once?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm not gonna add plot to this fic  
> Also me: so that was a fat fucking lie

If there was one thing Rayla could say to describe the vibe of the atmosphere in Ribular Town, it would be tense. The air hung like a thick jelly, and all of the people nearby seemed to be in some sort of strange funk. Had Rayla missed something, or was every human in town just upset all at once? The latter sounded completely ridiculous, but with nothing else to go on, that was all she could assume at this point. She was almost considering taking the teleport tunnel back to her actual city if the atmosphere of the fossil dig sites was going to be this bland and negative, but at the same time, she was curious. She had to know if anything was going on. But she couldn’t just walk up to a random stranger and ask, her social skills were poor as it was. So, she was stuck.

Or, at least, she was, before a yelp came from behind her. She turned just in time to see a Lagia tearing across the center area of town at a dizzyingly fast pace. It strangely seemed to be completely alone, yet at the same time, desperate to find something. She watched with shock as the small vivosaur barrel down the teleport tunnel heading for Treasure Lake- which was even stranger, considering the typing of the vivosaur in question. She quickly looked around to the other bystanders, wondering if anyone was going to give chase, but the surrounding humans seemed completely uninterested. She sighed, before quickly dashing off down the tunnel to chase it. If anyone was going to be able to calm the tiny thing down, it was her. If she could get into its range of hearing, at least. She hoped to god that there wouldn’t be too many people digging in the mentioned site. If it was relatively empty, she could hide behind a tree or something and go dino mode. She found that vivosaurs were more likely to stop and listen if she was in full dino and not just standard Dinaurian.

The Lagia was definitely in a crazy hurry, though. Even from the entrance hill, she could see the little speed-demon zipping about on the dry outer banks of the lake. It almost seemed frantic. Maybe it had lost its owner and was just trying to find them again? How could anyone not notice one of their vivosaurs was missing, though? Still, Rayla made sure to duck behind a thicker patch of trees in the surrounding area, scanning the lake one more time to make sure she wasn’t being watched, and transformed effortlessly. She scampered after the vivosaur then, making sure not to seem as a threat to the few humans that were there with her.

_ “Hey! Little Lagia! Slow down, what’s got you so riled up like this?!”  _ Rayla called, cringing a bit when her gurgly roar seemed to startle a nearby human. 

She watched as the yellow-feathered vivosaur skidded to a halt, turning its head around to eye her curiously.

_ “Who are you? You don’t look like any normal vivosaur, not with those funky horns. Deltas don’t have horns like that! And your hair tufts are white, and you don’t have the correct elemental aura about you.”  _ The Lagia gurgled back, sizing up its company.  _ “Oh, I get it now. You’re one of those Dinaurians, right? Look, I don’t have time to talk to you right now, I need to find my person! He ran off ages ago and left me behind, along with all of the other vivosaurs he carries around on a team with me! Something bad’s happened, and he’s all alone out there somewhere!” _

Rayla frowned deeply.  _ “All the humans in the town square seemed to be upset or glum in some way, and now you speak of a ‘horrible thing’ happening. What’s happened? Do you know fully?” _

The Lagia clicked its beak.  _ “Humans being idiot humans, that’s what I’ll tell you! I don’t know if you know, but you really should, because there’s been a recent rise of poachers lately. So the top fighters sent out a team to try and bust them, but it didn’t exactly go well for them. Humans died, at the cost of exposing the identities of the poacher group. My person was the son of one of those humans that died! So if I could stop wasting time here talking to you and go find my person, that would be great!” _

Rayla’s blood ran cold. Poachers? She’d heard stories, rumors, about humans that would seek out abandoned or lost vivosaurs with the intent of turning them into taxidermy, but she had no idea they were so close by. That was one of the downsides to letting humans have Dinaurian technology- they’d found a way to use the technology to essentially remove the dino medal part of a vivosaur so only their active mode remained. The poachers would then put them down and stuff them for profit. Somehow, there was a big market for that kind of stuff. It was horrifying.

_ “Hey, what if I help you?”  _ Rayla suggested quickly, before the Lagia ran off again.  _ “No offense, but I’m faster. Hop up on my back and tell me where to go. Do you have any idea if he’s even on any of the four islands?” _

The Lagia seemed to deflate a little.  _ “We have no clue. Aopteryx and I were the ones who activated to go and search, because we’re small and less likely to cause a commotion. That, and the other members of our team can’t activate in the house without destroying it. He left his little brother home too, and we know that he also has his own vivosaur team, but we agreed it would be better for the super revivers to stay with the young one just in case. We wouldn’t want to fail our person like that.” _

_ “So you’re just rapid-fire searching all of the island dig sites to see if he’s here at all.”  _ Rayla said, earning a tiny nod from the Lagia.  _ “Hop on my back. Let’s go find your person.” _

The Lagia wasted no time, scrambling up Rayla’s side with a bit of a struggle. She felt its clawed hands slightly grip her white hair tufts.

_ “I don’t think he’s here. I’m running out of places to search! I told Aopteryx I’d take Ribular, Cranial, and Illum, and she’d go to Vivosaur Island. There’s too many places he could be!” _

_ “Do you not know of any safe place or favorite place he’d go to?” _

The Lagia gurgled miserably.  _ “Not really, no. My person isn’t exactly as attached to me as he is to his other vivosaurs. Especially his Kaishin. But that’s okay, because I know how much that sea serpent means to him. She’s been with him longer than I ever have.” _

Rayla’s brain stalled, and she almost stopped her scampering right at that admission. A person, male, with a Kaishin. No. No, it couldn’t.

_ “...Is his name Callum?”  _ Rayla asked quietly, hoping to god that she was wrong.

_ “Yeah! Yeah, that’s his name alright! You know him?” _

Rayla felt despair grip her heart. The son of a fighter who’d been killed… Oh, why did the world have to be so cruel to him?!  _ “Yeah. He’s a new friend of mine. He knows I’m a Dinaurian too, and yet he was so nice to me. I feel so bad, he just lost his dad!” _

_ “That’s not the only issue.”  _ The Lagia chirped sadly.  _ “The group of poachers that his dad fell to, his friend Claudia and her dad are a part of it. I always liked her, too. But now that I know she’s been killing my kind… I’ll kill her myself!” _

_ “You want backup on that?”  _ Rayla snarled in reply.  _ “I don’t understand how some humans can be so sweet and others be so cruel! He doesn’t deserve this!” _

_ “That’s what we all said!”  _ The Lagia replied with a huff.  _ “But I think I know who you are now. Kaishin was running her mouth about a Dinaurian that he’d met and how your first meeting was rather rocky… But you don’t seem so bad. She’s honestly just way too overprotective of him.” _

_ “Sounds like the Kaishin I met, yeah.”  _ Rayla grumbled sourly.  _ “But since I know who we’re looking for now, I have an idea on where he might be. Hopefully I’m right.” _

* * *

She’d been right, of course. But with the sight that lay before her, she felt her heart twist tightly and she’d never wished so much that she hadn’t been right. Her Lagia companion squawked, leaping off of her back and running towards her owner without any hesitation. But the distraught boy wasn’t paying attention. He was busy ripping pages out of his sketchbook violently, his mouth set in a tight grimace, and tears streaming down his cheeks. He only noticed he was no longer alone when Lagia practically jumped into his lap, pushing her head against his chest and cooing sadly.

Callum furiously blinked, rubbing his eyes with one arm as he looked up and caught sight of the other dinosaur in the room. “Y-you…”

Rayla stepped forward carefully, giving him a sad look- well, as sad as she could with a dino face like hers. She crouched down next to him the best she could, and made a decision. She wouldn’t hide from him this time. Closing her eyes, she willed her dino form to fade away, and soon she was back in her Dinaurian form, staring at him with incredible sorrow and pity.

“R-rayla?” He hiccuped, his eyes widening. “But… you… A few days ago…”

“I know. I deceived you. I’m sorry.” Rayla said softly, dipping her head. “I wasn’t thinking right during that time, but that’s no excuse. I know coming clean to you now isn’t exactly the best time either, but I ran into your Lagia earlier. She told me everything.”

Rayla watched with gut-wrenching sorrow as Callum’s face scrunched up again, and she didn’t give herself time to think properly before she gently grabbed his shoulders and pulled him to her in a hug. She curled her tail in a protective way around them, almost without any thought, as she heard him start to sob into his shoulder. She held him a little tighter.

“I have nowhere to go.” Callum cried. “My little brother, Ezran, he’s only ten years old, and we’ve lost our parents now. We have nowhere to go, and I don’t know if I can stay in that house anymore!”

Rayla looked over at Callum’s Lagia helplessly, unsure of what to do. The Lagia whispered back to her despair and cluelessness as well. “I’m so sorry Callum… You never deserved any of this. Those poachers will be brought to justice.”

“Those poachers…” Callum spat. “Two of them were my friends, my family, even! Now they’re on the run, and they left their brother and son behind! And my aunt won’t be able to come to get us for awhile because of her job!”

Oh, right. Callum had mentioned a sibling to that Claudia girl before. Soren was his name, if she remembered correctly. At least he seemed to be a better example than the other two disgusting humans.

“Okay.” Rayla breathed calmly, rubbing circles on his back in an attempt to calm him. “I know I could never give you what you really need right now, but I’m going to do my best, because you’re my friend now, and that’s what friends do. First, we should take you home to your brother. Lagia said that you left your super revivers behind to protect him if necessary. Your Aopteryx went to vivosaur island, so she should be back soon as well. Considering that island is the most vivosaur and Dinaurian-friendly place on the planet, she most likely didn’t run into any trouble. I’m gonna come with you. In fact, I’m going to carry you and you’re going to tell me where to go.”

Callum sniffed, his outburst starting to calm down. “Oh...okay. I shouldn’t have left Ezran in the first place, but I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I’m gonna have to apologize to him…”

Rayla nodded, before pulling back from him and transforming back into full dino mode. She watched as Callum softly called his Lagia back into her dino medal, before carefully climbing up onto Rayla’s back.

“I should’ve realized it was you, before.” Callum said as they began to leave the Petrified Woods. “Even though vivosaurs are pretty aware, you were definitely too aware to just be a regular vivosaur. And you’ve got those pretty horns too, Deltas don’t have those.”

_ Pretty?  _ Rayla thought to herself with a strange pride. She shook herself out of that train of thought as they took the teleport tunnel back to town. She stopped quickly, turning her head back slightly to look at her passenger, waiting for his directions.

“Oh. Right.” Callum mumbled, seemingly having just come out of a daydream. “Just go to the west side teleport tunnel. We’re going to Katolis.”

_ Katolis, huh? Wow, we live pretty far away from each other normally. Thank god for teleport tunnels, or we never would’ve met in the first place.  _ Rayla mused to herself, trotting carefully to where he said they should go. Once they were through, Rayla once again looked back at Callum for directions.

“I live pretty close to the teleport tunnel, actually. It’s just a bit down this street. It starts turning from buildings to proper houses down the road over there, you see?”

She nodded, setting off in her trotting again. She made sure to listen to Callum on her back, who was still sniffling a little every few seconds. It made her so sad to see him like this. He really was a sweet little thing, even if they’d known each other for such a short time. The last thing Rayla had wanted was to see him looking this miserable. But honestly, what could she do to help? She knew the pain of losing parents, but she didn’t think bringing up her own experience with it was appropriate. She had mentioned that she didn’t want to talk about her past to him either…

“It’s over here. This house.” Callum said, snapping her from her thoughts.

She made sure to get close to his house, before quickly transforming back into Dinaurian form, as well as turning on her human disguise. “Right. Well… um… I really am sorry, Callum. Runaan always tells me that all humans are vile, and maybe he’s right about some of them, but he’s not right about you. You’re really good, and I hate that something like this had to happen to someone like you.”

Rayla had meant to turn around and walk away, thinking that she’d reached the limit of what she could do, but Callum stopped her.

“Do you want to come in?” He blurted out suddenly, hands wringing together nervously. When she didn’t reply right away, he panicked and started to backpedal. “Um! If you want to! I just… maybe you’d want to meet Ezran, and I don’t know how well I’ll be able to comfort him when I’m like this, I could use your help, but if you don’t want to I-”

“I’d love to.” Rayla said softly, cutting him off. “Don’t be afraid to ask for my company if you need it. I do really want to help you.”

And for the first time that whole afternoon, Rayla got to see him smile. It wasn’t a big smile, or a very happy smile, but it was a smile nonetheless, and Rayla felt her heart skip a beat when it spread across his face.

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Sym what the fuck why's there angst in this one too why can't you just write these kids being happy" Listen I will promise you all right now that this AU won't get as emotionally exhausting as SOS. I'll have more fluffiness in this one than in SOS by a landslide. But I'm lowkey just fucking around with this one. This plot is way less significant to SOS's plot. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


End file.
